The Government of Jamaica (GOJ), in an effort to improve the competitiveness of Jamaica’s business environment, is reducing or eliminating bureaucratic impediments through the re-design and simplification of targeted business processes and with the use of appropriate information technology (IT) solutions to support this objective.
In this regard, the process for registration of a new business name or company is being simplified by the introduction and use of a single form. This form (referred to as the “Super Form”) is completed and submitted by the applicant at the Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ) and will eliminate the process that requires the completion of multiple forms as well as visits to multiple GOJ agencies.
For registration of a new company and business name, the consolidated SuperForm eliminated the need to visit the following agencies:
- Tax Administration of Jamaica (TAJ) -for registration and receipt of a Taxation Registration Number (TRN), registration for General Consumption Tax (GCT) and for obtaining a Tax Compliance Certificate (TCC)
- National Insurance Scheme Office (NIS)
- National Housing Trust (NHT),
- Human Employment And Resource Training Trust (HEART).
The project commenced in 2012 and was automated and deployed to the public on April 7, 2014.
eGovJa’s role included the provision of project management services and software development services to allow integration of the Companies Office Companies “Registration System” with TAJ systems, namely TRN, TCC and GCT via the use of web services technology.
eGov Jamaica Limited had responsibility for gathering, analyzing and validating user requirements from both the TAJ and COJ, as well as establishing the scope of the project during this phase of implementation. The scoping and data mapping exercises ensured that the information being captured by the COJ systems translated correctly to the TAJ systems to achieve the desired registration outcome in each scenario.
During the course of the project, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) required all entities to conform to the Jamaica Industrial Classification (JIC) 2005 standard for occupation (business nature) classification. This resulted in a sub-project for the TAJ to map their existing 1987 and adhoc business nature codes to the 2005 standard thus allowing eGovJa to validate and execute this change in the production systems.
The objective of real time registration of companies or business names at the TAJ for TRN, GCT and TCC has been achieved through a network of service calls with responses received for valid requests being returned to the COJ in a matter of seconds.